Discussions By Condition: Nerve conditions

Seizures/menstruation/IBS

This is just yet another question from my overly analytical mind but I've worked in medicine for 20 years, a lot of them typing medical reports and this has been bugging me. Why does it seem that seizures tend to increase with menstruation as do headaches in a lot of females? It makes you wonder. I had an abdominal hysterectomy (kept ovaries) due to uterine prolapse and after that surgery, the chronic diarrhea from my irritable bowel stopped. I mean - I had IBS for YEARS and boom - they do the hysterectomy and it stops. Anyone ever have one surgery end up curing another problem?

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This is just yet another question from my overly analytical mind but I've worked in medicine for 20 years, a lot of them typing medical reports and this has been bugging me. Why does it seem that seizures tend to increase with menstruation as do headaches in a lot of females? It makes you wonder. I had an abdominal hysterectomy (kept ovaries) due to uterine prolapse and after that surgery, the chronic diarrhea from my irritable bowel stopped. I mean - I had IBS for YEARS and boom - they do the hysterectomy and it stops. Anyone ever have one surgery end up curing another problem? I cant speak for everyone but for me and my condition andersen tawil syndrome the symptoms were always worse around my period,,it is a kind of hypokalemia partial paralysis where fluctuations in my potassium levels from normal to slightly high or slightly low cause me severe pain.. it is a potassium ion channelopathy. I recently read an article by dr michael segal that suggests certain cases of attention deficit are caused by these potassium ion channelopathies.. it led to me to my diagnosis of myself after 53 years of trying to figure out what was wrong with me. ps my periods were absolute ***l due to the sensory overload issues caused by the potassium ion channelopathy.. I start my adventure of getting a medical diagnosis with my doctor this week.. i will be seeking a referral to the muscular dystrophy association from her as andersen tawil syndrome is covered under there allied nueromuscular conditions katts ps all of us folks with andersen tawil look the same!! that is why i am so sure of the diagnosis,,, go figure the way i look is a genetic syndrome!! lmao! katts ps my daughter has been evaluated for seizures several times since child hood with no positive eeg findings but there is no no denying she had several grand mal seizures as i worked for 10 years in group homes for dd, and i know what they look like...

I cant speak for everyone but for me and my condition andersen tawil syndrome the symptoms were always worse around my period,,it is a kind of hypokalemia partial paralysis where fluctuations in my potassium levels from normal to slightly high or slightly low cause me severe pain.. it is a potassium ion channelopathy. I recently read an article by dr michael segal that suggests certain cases of attention deficit are caused by these potassium ion channelopathies.. it led to me to my diagnosis of myself after 53 years of trying to figure out what was wrong with me. ps my periods were absolute ***l due to the sensory overload issues caused by the potassium ion channelopathy.. I start my adventure of getting a medical diagnosis with my doctor this week.. i will be seeking a referral to the muscular dystrophy association from her as andersen tawil syndrome is covered under there allied nueromuscular conditions katts ps all of us folks with andersen tawil look the same!! that is why i am so sure of the diagnosis,,, go figure the way i look is a genetic syndrome!! lmao! katts ps my daughter has been evaluated for seizures several times since child hood with no positive eeg findings but there is no no denying she had several grand mal seizures as i worked for 10 years in group homes for dd, and i know what they look like... Wow. I haven't heard of that condition yet. I'm so sorry you have to undergo this ordeal but your post is dramatically upbeat. That's really great that you have such a good attitude! The heart palpitations and paralysis must be really frightening. I suffer from a panic/anxiety disorder and if something happened to me like that, I'd freak. But you do what you gotta do. I'm finding more and more conditions that get worse during menstruation. Kind of makes you realize: A. The hormones must play a huge roll in our body. B. Someone very weird/different goes on during the menstrual cycle. I hope your daughter's seizures don't escalate when she starts her menses. I've been thru grand mal seizures, so I sympathize with your daughter. I don't have a seizure disorder per se. When I was a young kid, my mom took me to see a neuro doc because I was so hyper (still am sometimes - ha ha). I think I was 6 or 7 at the time. The EEG showed seizure activity but since I hadn't ever had a seizure, they said to wait until adolescence to see if anything develops. Well, it did, but long after adolescence. I have a low seizure threshold and will go into a grand mal seizure if the wrong medication is given. Ultram started it off. Then, I was put on seizure medication Topamax and for 8 years, I had been seizure free until developing an intractable UTI. It wasn't cured with the first 2 courses of antibiotics, so I was given Cipro as a third antibiotic. Obviously, my doctor missed it and so did the pharmacist. I was about mid-course with my Cipro and I had a grand mal seizure. It really sucks when you bite thru your tongue during the seizure. Stays sore for weeks. Cipro belongs to a group of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. I know I can't take quinolones but maybe the doctor thought I could tolerate fluoroquinolones. It does clearly have a seizure precaution. I don't know. I had a chronic fever and violent shaking chills because I was septic, and was just too sick to care about looking it up myself like I usually do, to make sure there are no contraindictions. I left my faith in the doctor (my allergies are clearly on my chart) and the pharmacist. Stupid me. I ended up with a total of 6 courses of antibiotics during a length illness over the last sevearl months, with Cipro causing the grand mal seizure, 2 huge courses of steroids, several anti-inflammatories, plus aspirin and Tylenol because I had let the UTI go for a little over a week, hoping it would go away and instead it got worse. I'd never had one, and hoped my body would fight it off. The UTI turned me septic. At the same time, they found bladder and kidney stones (possibly caused by the Topamax). As my bladder started to improve, I developed pleurisy and costochondritis, possibly from my original infection. I had been in pain for so long with the nasty UTI (I took OTC Pyridium to deal with the pain and burning, which helped quite a bit) and now I had the pain of costochondritis and pleurisy, I just lay on the couch as soon as I finished work (luckily, I work from home) and cried, suddenly understanding why people say they're "ready to go" when it's time to die. Mind you, I did not want to die but I was so sick that I don't think I would have cared. Anyway, during the bout of sepsis and costochondritis, my PCP sent me to the ER because I was so sick. I requested an IV because I felt dehydrated. Two moron nurses came in and did nothing but complain about the whole thing. There was someone drawing blood from my other arm, so I didn't pay much attention to sterility. About an hour after the IV was started, I started getting really bad pains in my left arm. The next day, the infection was half way up my arm and it hurt something awful. I had infectious phlebitis. Finally, I was given 2 consecutive courses of Keflex after I finished the Augmentin I was already on (antibiotic #4). This went on for quite awhile and finally I started to feel better after months of being ill. My very first day of feeling better and once again like I had rejoined the human race, I decided to catch up on house work that I had abandoned after I got sicker and sicker. I took a huge load of laundry down the basement steps and miscounted them. I still had one more step to go, and from the second step up, my right foot hit the ground ******n the side, then twisted underneath me, my 120 lbs of body weight on top of the foot. I refused to go back to that septic hospital and instead just endured the pain for a few days until I could get in to see a podiatrist. Besides, ERs around here don't set fractures anymore. They X-ray you and give you narcotics for pain, and it would have cost me another $100 with the copay. Almost my entire foot, including my toes, was black and purple. I'm about 15-16 days out from the fracture right now and finally my right foot is starting to feel better, though I have to walk around in that Cam boot for 3.5 more weeks. It's only sore if you touch it. It no longer thumps like it did for the first week. I look outside and wonder what happened to summer. It came and it's almost gone and I missed most of it being sick. Not a summer I care to remember. I'm beginning to think I'm cursed (this morning, my car wouldn't start. Arrggghhh!). Maybe my Vikings will make me feel better by winning a SB this year, though I'm still unsure about Favre. :p Tammy Thanks for your story. I always love learning about new diagnoses/syndromes. So, I take it this is a neurological disease? I suppose with all those symptoms, you were sent to quite a few specialists. I know it gets frustrating when nobody can find out what's wrong with you (I had severe back pain for over 2 years and none of the specialists I saw seemed to know the problem. After my uterus prolapsed, I had an abdominal hysterectomy and they found a soft-ball sized fibroid on the back of my uterus, pressing on my spine, which was made worse by my retroverted uterus. I am now back pain free. I guess I just have to wait for those bulging disks in my lumbar spine to herniate. LOL! :D

Thanks for your story. I always love learning about new diagnoses/syndromes. I've seen various specialists over the years - for my back, etc. I didn't see any specialists for the last illness. I just assume it's from the original infection that I let go for 10 days. I've never had any experience with UTIs and hoped my body would fight it. I bought Pyridium OTC and took the prescription strength dose and it numbed my bladder. I started peeing blood clots, then straight blood. I got into my doctor quickly after that. My bladder was in constant spasm and I had terrible abdominal pain. My urethra was on fire. Must be pretty bad when it takes 3 different antibiotics to treat it. The first two antibiotics were even sensitive to the bacteria (I can't remember which bacteria - wasn't E. coli, possibly Staph aureus?) and they didn't work. When that cleared up, all the other problems started and I think they were just part of the original problem, the infected IV being given by the hospital and the seizure caused by Cipro. Since the lungs aren't that far from the bladder and I was septic, I think maybe the bacteria traveled thru my blood up to my lungs. Those violent shaking chills were awful and though it was warm outside, I was covered in blankets. Since I was peeing all the time, I had to get up a lot and whenever I left the blankets, I get those violent shaking chills. I'd dive back under the blankets when I was done and after about 5 minutes, I'd be roasting. The fracture feels so much better now. I know I should be doing this, but I've been walking around in my house without the walker. It's been 2 1/2 weeks now. It hurt something awful for about a week, went to hurt but I could live with it kind of pain for 5 days or so and now feels great but is still pretty swollen at the top of the foot and ankle. I hope this is the end to it all. :o